Genetic and chemical profiling of Gymnema sylvestre accessions from central India: Its implication for quality control and therapeutic potential of plant

Background: Gymnema sylvestre, a vulnerable plant species, is mentioned in Indian Pharmacopeia as an antidiabetic drug Objective: Study of genetic and chemical diversity and its implications in accessions of G. sylvestre Materials and Methods: Fourteen accessions of G. sylvestre collected from Central India and assessment of their genetic and chemical diversity were carried out using ISSR (inter simple sequence repeat) and HPLC (high performance liquid chromatography) fingerprinting methods Results: Among the screened 40 ISSR primers, 15 were found polymorphic and collectively produced nine unique accession-specific bands. The maximum and minimum numbers of amplicones were noted for ISSR-15 and ISSR-11, respectively. The ISSR -11 and ISSR-13 revealed 100% polymorphism. HPLC chromatograms showed that accessions possess the secondary metabolites of mid-polarity with considerable variability. Unknown peaks with retention time 2.63, 3.41, 23.83, 24.50, and 44.67 were found universal type. Comparative hierarchical clustering analysis based on foresaid fingerprints indicates that both techniques have equal potential to discriminate accessions according to percentage gymnemic acid in their leaf tissue. Second approach was noted more efficiently for separation of accessions according to their agro-climatic/collection site Conclusion: Highly polymorphic ISSRs could be utilized as molecular probes for further selection of high gymnemic acid yielding accessions. Observed accession specific bands may be used as a descriptor for plant accessions protection and converted into sequence tagged sites markers. Identified five universal type peaks could be helpful in identification of G. sylvestre-based various herbal preparations.